Damn thieves! Need advice on securing a shed.

[Justbeamn]

My fathers shed was broken into last night. They cut off the wimpy locks and stole about $1000 worth of equipment. Does anybody have any good suggestions for locks/hasps or whatnots. I found some good discus locks w/hasps on the net. but all are in the UK. What do you guys use? The shed has two swing out doors that butt together in the center. Thanks



Devon

 

[Crazy Horse]

Go to Home Depot. I just built a shed and thought about the same thing you had happen. HD has these black rod slide bolts around the hasp area that attack with carriage bolts and I put nylon lock nuts on the inside of the doors where they come through to the inside. Then they can be locked with some big hurky locks . I put one on the top, one on the bottom, and a hasp in the middle. My 4wheeler is in there and I hate walking.

 

['956Wheel]

lots of steel

Secure one door, top and bottom. Then get a 3/16" or 1/4" plate, approx 4" X 8" put a slot that will fit onto a padeye mounted on the secure door, get a decent padlock and have a short piece of pipe welded to the plate allowing just enough room to get the lock on and off the padeye while in the pipe. I have built a few and when they see it they just leave.



Be sure to use all through bolts and do not depend on the wood at all... . through bolts on the hinges too.



ALSO... . got dogs?



Mike

 

[BK]

get a wireless alarm...

 

[illflem]

Connect an electric fence charger to the hasp from the inside!!!!

 

['956Wheel]

easy fix

Video camera... . fake or real.



Mike

 

[WOWZY]

My Dad couldn't afford one of those alarm systems 20 years ago so he painted up a sign that said "Smile you're on camera" and never had any problems after that. Later he installed flood lights everywhere including in the trees with motion sensors. They had to have balls if they aproached the shop after lighting up the first set of lights in the woods.



A few years back ATV's were getting stolen by 100's around these parts. A friend of mine would always forget to lock up his shop and I told him that his was gonna get stolen if he didn't lock it up. A couple of months later I went riding with him on his farm and we didn't get back until after dark. I didn't have lights working on the trailer and decided to leave it at his house till the next day. I drve it in his shop and took the right rear tire off of it and put it in my truck. My friend said "what are you doing?" I told him that the thieves don't like stealing 3-Wheelers, he laughed and I went home.



The next morning he woke me up knocking on the door and said, "someone broke into the shop and stole my ATV!" I shook my head and went with him back to his shop. I didn't see any forced entry and knew that he forgot to lock up the shop, but anyway mine was still sitting where I left it. I guess the thieves thought that something was wrong with it and left it alone.



After a few weeks the cops found his ATV and busted the guys who stole it. It was pretty beat up and his brand new Blackwaters were worn almost bald from being ridden on the pavement. I don't wish this on anyone but he had it coming for not locking the shop up.



I think that if you take the little time that it takes to remove the 4 nuts to remove one of the wheels, your ATV should always be where you left it because it looks "broke down" and thieves would probably never give it a second look.

 

[DarrellB]

Large caliber hand gun.



Big D

 

[CGoyette]

attached to the door

100 Percent foolproof! (only thing tougher than a cummins)

 

[BK]

it stinks. .



you can get a wireless home system for under 100 bucks. .

easy doityourself install. And if there's not power in the shed and if the range is suitable for the distance between the garage/shed and house, put the basestation in the house and the transmitter and switches, of course, in the garage/shed.



Places like Radio Shack and Home depot take anything back in a reasonably time, so you can install, tryit, if the range isnt good enough bring it back.



The fake camera is a good idea, for about 50bucks, I think it's Northen Tools sells one that works off a battery, blinking light and when it detects a body, the camera scans back and forth.

Best of the fakes I've seen.



Bob

 

[The patriot]

Wallmart used to sell something called "the body alarm". It is a small alarm (about the size of a small walkie talkie) with a piece of wire coming out of it. When this wire is pulled out... . LOOK OUT!!! It's about 130Db's!!!

Hook this up to your Pop's door, and I guarantee the preps will not come back!!

BTW When I saw them, they were about $5. 00.

If they dont have them, you could fashion a home made alarm out of some wire, a spring, a nail,a 12 gauge shell,and some sheet metal , but I wont go there.

Eric

 

[wcaldwell]

About a year and a half ago, I had the same thing happen to my Tuff Shed. Same kind of doors, too.



I bought a 12-ft long 2x4, two metal 2x4 braces that will bolt to the side of a flat-bed truck and another brace that the 2x4 will slide down on-edge into.



I carriage bolted the 2 truck braces to the ends of the front of my shed. I took a 6-inch long, 5/8 diameter carriage bolt and drilled a hole in the bottom end of it to hold a pad lock. I drilled a 5/8 inch hole in the end of the 12-ft long 2x4. I carriage bolted the 1 brace that the 2x4 will slide down into on the face of one of the doors.



Now, i slide the 12-foot 2x4 sideways into the left side brace, drop it down into the center brace, slide it into the right-side brace enough for the holes to line up, insert the 6-inch carriage bolt, and put a pad lock in it.



In addition, I installed a master pad lock/hasp combination.



Plus a new lock handle.



My shed is triple-locked and you need a CTD to pull the doors off in order to get into it without unlocking anything.



I think it's safe and secure enough.

 

[Fireman]

Justbeamn



Locks just keep honest people honest, and if you fortify the locks thieves will find another weakness and attack the shed there. I used to work at a place that had a high tech alarm/security system , locks and bars every where. They just took their little Dewalt cordless drill around back removed a wall panel and stole several motorcycles, and no one knew it untill tyhe next day.



Honest people can't win

Fireman

 

[BK]

Not too hi-tech if they didnt have motion detectors installed, or properly installed I should say...



I love walking around stores and checking out their electronic security systems. .



To give credit the good alarm installers, I've seen just fine installations get rendered useless by the user of the space. I've seen everything from plants to hanging advertisements get in the way of motion detectors.



If seen bad installations... stuff just installed wrong.

I get a lot of laughs when I see all the money some people spend on alarm systems for their stores or offices and then they just ignore the operation of it's components.

On the other hand I've seen the skimpiest of installations, why some even bother I don't know.



If it needs to be protected, it can be. It's just all about how much you want to spend and then having it done right...

Just like HP, how fast do you want to go? really means how much money do you want to spend???...

 

[Crazy Horse]

They'll be digging at this one for awile. Quarter inch carriage bolts and 3 locks. Welded screw heads in the hinges. Inside of the doors reinforced w/ 2x4s.

 

[DaveN]

hook up an old model t coil and hook it up to your hasp. You'll of course want to discharge it before touching it yourself. This also works for when one of your neighborhood dogs are using your garbage cans as a urinal. Set the garbage cans on an insulating mat, and wait for the yelping. After getting 20 some odd thousand volts up the yin yang, they find somewhere else to mark.

 

['956Wheel]

How 'bout a deep hole in front of the door covered with luan! Be sure and show Dad!



Mike

 

[Rogue Ram]

As for the padlocks, most are JUNK. I think it is American Lock (?) that makes the one all the bad guys use to secure their stuff... ... the lock is made of BORON steel, and supposedly can't be cut with bolt cutters, can't be drilled... . I think a good torch man can do it. Probably the ol' . 30-06 would do it as well, but you wouldn't have to worry about that. Do a search on the net for boron steel locks, and you should find one... ... .



R